The sheriff’s office has been paying employees double instead of time-and-a-half for overtime, citing a shortage of jail deputies and persistent trouble hiring and retaining employees. But authorization for that double pay has run out, and Labat asked commissioners to approve it again.
Ellis said he requested data on how double overtime was allocated last year, and found it cost $6.5 million altogether.
“Just under $2 million of that was spent on civilian staff,” he said — and $3.6 million of it went to employees other than jail staff.
Some people nearly doubled their pay via overtime, Ellis said. He asked if the new resolution mandated the double-overtime pay go to people who actually worked at the jail.
Kenneth Hermon, county HR director, said the previous year’s authorization didn’t include many restrictions but the renewal proposal is “significantly different.”
“It limits the double overtime only to two units within the sheriff’s department,” Hermon said: the jail and its satellite functions. It also says only detention officers or sworn deputies are eligible, and excludes the crime suppression unit, he said.
Better monitoring and documentation is also needed of hours worked, Ellis said.
District 6 Commissioner Khadijah Abdur-Rahman said she has repeatedly asked whether the sheriff intends to repay money misspent from the jail’s former Inmate Welfare Fund. The county took control of the fund from the sheriff’s office last November after discovering — again due to questions by Ellis — that large sums had been spent on gift cards, public events and other items that did not benefit inmates. The fund came from jail commissary sales and inmate phone charges.
Sheriff’s Office Chief of Staff Michael Shoates and Chief Counsel Amelia Joiner stepped up to speak, but that didn’t satisfy Abdur-Rahman.
“I asked the sheriff to answer the questions,” she said.
Hermon said if commissioners didn’t pass the double-overtime authorization,…
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